Let's Party with Marty: A Martin Scorsese Podcast

This week we're tackling the first of three companion films for Martin Scorsese's New York, New York, looking at 1946 movie musical, Blue Skies. We talk about the incredible talents of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, as well as some of the more troubling and outdated elements of this film, and of course how it was influential for Marty.

We've reached a Martin Scorsese milestone this week as we arrive at Taxi Driver. Fortunately, we're joined by the wonderful Jakub Flasz of the Uncut Gems podcast to help us unpack the myriad of things going on underneath the hood of this movie. Join us as we get into what is real and what isn't, the complicated and problematic legacy of this movie, the incredible score, and the very best pet hedgehog there ever was, Travis Prickle.

Arguably one of the films that most influenced Martin Scorsese — particularly Taxi Driver but also further across his career — 1958's Murder By Contract is a great lesson in "less is more." Sarah and MJ discuss the great score, why it's okay for bad guys to be good at what they do, and then go on a fun tangent about the films that affected them when they were 16.

This week we're joined by Lewis Wride, to talk about 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. We get into the incredible performance from Ellen Burstyn, further Wizard of Oz parallels, why Vera is who we all aspire to be, and continue the discussion on why Martin Scorsese is actually a feminist.

This week we're back on the companion film list talking about 1951's Take Care of My Little Girl. Paired with Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, this obscurity has much to say about the American upper crust and the evils of sororities and fraternities that are hiding in plain sight ... and so do we!

This week Sarah and MJ are joined by the man who quite literally wrote the book on New York movies, Jason Bailey, to talk about Martin Scorsese's loving portrait of his parents. Italianamerican gets to the heart of the special sauce (quite literally) that inspires Marty to make movies and offers a fascinating glimpse into the immigrant experience.

In this week's episode, Sarah and MJ dive into Shirley Clarke's 1967 "documentary," Portrait of Jason. This episode is a real rollercoaster as we discover something of the truth behind the making of this fascinating snapshot, and have a small existential crisis about what even is real anyway. This film was chosen by Scorsese as the companion film to his 1974 portrait of his family, Italianamerican on his Letterboxd list.

On our latest episode Sarah & MJ discuss 1973's Mean Streets, the film many fans see as the true beginning of Martin Scorsese's career. We talk about the incredible chemistry between Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, the pros and cons of needle drops in films, and why it is impossible to ignore the religious aspects of Scorsese's pictures.

On this week's episode Sarah and MJ talk about Bernardo Bertolucci's 1964 movie, Before the Revolution. Chosen by Martin Scorsese as the companion film for Mean Streets, there's plenty to unpack here and lots of important historical context that makes this an incredibly interesting film.

This week Sarah and MJ discuss Scorsese's sophomore feature, 1972's Boxcar Bertha. They get into "the Roger Corman of it all," the crucial ingredient missing from this Marty picture and why tonally this film has more in common with Looney Tunes ...

On this week's episode, Sarah and MJ talk about the 1950s gangster movie, Guns Don't Argue. They examine its influence on Marty — and Jean-Luc Godard — when it came to making a movie for pennies, talk more broadly about why low budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality, and discuss the power of art to stay with you from a young age. Plus some controversial Beatles takes ... this episode has it all!

Sarah and MJ jump into talking about the first Scorsese picture on their journey and boy, do they make the most of it. They cover everything from the influence of Shadows on Who's That Knocking At My Door? to debut features, Marty's twisted sense of humor. And, of course, the faith tradition that permeates Marty's work.

On the inaugural episode of Let's Party with Marty, Sarah and MJ sit down to discuss John Cassavete's directorial debut, and the film that inspired Scorsese to pick up a camera, Shadows. They talk about the film as an overlooked piece of counterculture art that helped usher in the idea of independent filmmaking and paved the way for films like Dazed and Confused and even Clerks. They also talk about the influence of the film they see across Scorsese's entire career.

Welcome to Let's Party with Marty, a podcast where Sarah Buddery and MJ Smith are going to take a deep dive into Martin Scorsese's filmography, as well as the films on his Letterboxd list that he views as "Companions" to his own body of work.